Galapagos: An evolving story

GALÁPAGOS:
AN EVOLVING
STORY

Around five million years ago in the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles off the coast of South America, a series of violent volcanic events gave birth to a rocky archipelago of barren islands, inhospitable to life.

But not for long...

THE first to colonise

As the young islands were cooling off, animal species began to arrive and colonise. It’s speculated the newcomers floated across on rafts of vegetation from the shores of Central and South America. But because the new islands were so far from the continental mainland, only the hardiest creatures could survive the journey. Upon arrival, the castaways had to quickly adapt to a radically new environment or perish.

1535

The first person to set foot in the Galápagos was the Spanish Bishop of Panama, Tomás de Berlanga. An unexpectedly strong wind, together with the Panama Current, drove his ship towards the islands, and when he stepped ashore in 1535, he found the land to be teeming with – as he saw it – creatures acting in a strange manner. “The birds here are so silly,” he later wrote to the King of Spain, “they know not how to flee”.

‘Las Encantadas’

The Galápagos have long been nicknamed Las Encantadas, meaning the ‘enchanted’ or ‘bewitched’ isles.

This is thanks to a phenomenon that makes the land seem to magically appear and disappear in a fine mist, known locally as garua.

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It’s known for its outstanding wildlife and nature, attracting explorers from around the world. People arrive in winter to witness the beautiful Northern Lights dance across the sky, while in summer, there’s the Midnight Sun, bringing 24 hours of daylight.

SVALBARD IS UNLIKE
ANYWHERE ELSE

But what most visitors to Svalbard don’t realise is that housed unseen within this magical landscape is an important treasure trove crucial to the survival of the planet.

1570

A map of the Spanish New World was drawn up by a Flemish cartographer named Abraham Ortelius. The map circulated widely throughout the Caribbean and was soon used by buccaneers who marauded around the Pacific Ocean in the 1600s.

The previously elusive islands were thus literally put on the map for the very first time. No longer Las Encantadas, they were given the more obvious name of Islas de los Galápagos – meaning ‘Islands of the Giant Tortoises’.

17th & 18th century

Later, during the 17th and 18th centuries, pirates used the Galápagos as a safe harbour. Giant tortoises proved to be an ‘ideal’ source of meat as they could be stored alive in their ships for months at a time. Sadly, the buccaneers killed thousands of these easily caught creatures, removing what is now known to be a key species for ecosystem health on the islands.

Humans continued to cause harm. 18th century whalers had a terrible impact on the islands - killing even more tortoises, and introducing animals such as rats and goats, with devastating effects on the native species.

1835

When Charles Darwin visited the islands, it inspired his famous book On the Origin of Species.

He viewed the archipelago as a ‘living laboratory’ and, to this day it’s regarded as one of the world’s foremost locations for scientific research into evolutionary biology.

GALÁPAGOS TODAY

Exactly 100 years after the publication of Darwin’s book – the islands were declared a National Park by Ecuador. Soon came the concept of responsible tourism: to share the archipelago’s beauty without harming its fragile ecosystems. Much of the archipelago enjoys strong legal protection by UNESCO and the Ecuadorean government, and there are numerous projects to restore the native wildlife and ecosystems.

Visiting the Galápagos today is a lot easier for us than in times past. But unlike previous explorers, we aim to give something back to these remote and beautiful islands and – of course – make our visits as low-impact as possible.